North Boulder CRIT

The North Boulder CRIT has always been one of my favorite races and this year was no exception. The boys and I went early so Jake could do the kids race which was right before mine. His chain fell off while racing his age group so he jumped in with the older kids and did a second race. What a stud!

For me, it seemed like there were a million things that I had to do and it felt like I was being pulled from all directions. In fact, I almost missed my race start because I had to return a bunch of cross parts to my old team owner. I rolled up to the start line about 1 minute before the start with no warm up.

Right from the gun the pace was fast so I stayed up front to keep from yo-yoing off the back. Next thing I know, we dropped a good portion of the field. Small breaks had been trying to get away all day and I stayed patient until I thought the time was right. With just over 30 minutes to go I attacked into the corners and went solo for two laps before Phil Z and another rider bridged up to me. We worked together and opened a pretty big gap but I was starting to hurt and was questioning if the break would stick without three of us working. The other guy looked like he was dying and wasn’t taking hardly any pulls so I made the decision to sit up and get caught by the chase group. Why waste my energy in a break that won’t stick, right. Wrong, the break stuck and I ended up finishing 7th by taking fourth in the field sprint.

It was still a good race for me but looking back I sure wish I would have stayed with Phil.